Left handed sign of the cross

[7_Sorrows]

I thought the Orthodox use their left hand to cross themselves and the Catholics use their right hand. I am also left handed, but have tried to remind myself to use my right hand.
Normally I don’t pay attention to which hand anyone is using to cross themselves.

 

[Pattylt]

I heard that both usually use their right hand but when crossing at the shoulders, one goes right to left and the other goes left to right. I’m not Catholic so I don’t even know which is which! As an outsider, I’d just think they were left handed if I even noticed which hand.

 

[mVitus]

I thought the Orthodox use their left hand to cross themselves and the Catholics use their right hand. I am also left handed, but have tried to remind myself to use my right hand.

I looked at a YouTube video prior to posting this.

Eastern Christians (so Eastern Catholics are included in this) cross from the right shoulder to the left shoulder (whereas as we in the West go left to right) but they still use the right hand. (Unless left-handed I presume.)

 

[Diaconia]

I would assume your right hand / arm is hurt.

And I would smile at you.

I am a leftie myself.

Deacon Christopher

 

[GodSpawned]

I heard that both usually use their right hand but when crossing at the shoulders, one goes right to left and the other goes left to right.

I heard this too. @dochawk, maybe you can confirm?

 

[alice24]

I am orthodox, we usually use the right hand and cross ourself from right to left and (when you are not part of the old believers) with three fingers, this is the difference.

 

[Norseman82]

Well, I ride a motorcycle, and the right hand is for the throttle, so if I want to cross myself while riding I have to do it with my free left hand or else risk losing control when I release the throttle.

 

[Start]

Why would you do that? It might be safer to do it mentally or when the vehicle isn’t moving.

 

[chessnerd321]

Interestingly, I was reading through the general instructions for the Liturgy of the Hours last night (to try to track down where the prayers for Thanksgiving day office might be) and found this:

1. All make the sign of the cross, from forehead to breast and from left shoulder to right, at:

And then some times are listed. While it doesn’t say right hand, what interests me is the order it mentions.

I know that in the east they do the shoulders the other way. And being a convert that’s the way I randomly picked to do it before I knew otherwise. I felt self-conscious for awhile and thought about changing but when I learned the east does it that way didn’t.

Now I’m wondering again lol. Of course the ultimate answer to my and your question is probably “it doesn’t matter.”

 

[dochawk]

I heard this too. @dochawk, maybe you can confirm?

All used to cross from right to left.

At some point in the middle ages, the RC faithful started following the priest’s hand as he did so, resulting in switching to backwards . . .

EC and EO all are right to left (and so are many RC that come into contact with us and find out why . . . )

Generally, easterns hold the thumb and first two fingers together (for the trinity), and the last two against the palm (for Christ is both God and Man). Although I believe the Russians had a schism a few centuries over whether to cross with two fingers or three . . .

Also, I’ve been offered the explanation of “at the right hand of the Father” for the original/eastern behavior.

Well, I ride a motorcycle, and the right hand is for the throttle, so if I want to cross myself while riding I have to do it with my free left hand or else risk losing control when I release the throttle.

\me nods.

Even the Protestants cross them selves when one of my daughters drives . . .

:crazy_face:

hawk

 

[Xpi22]

GI have notice kids crossing with the left hand. There is, of course, among humans, a bias toward right-handedness because most humans are right-handed. Dignity has always been accorded to the right hand in culture and religion, our own not exempted. Revelation follows this bias, the right-hand being the place of honor. The left hand has through the ages come under opprobrium. In Latin the left is “sinister” from which we have our word sinister, meaning under-handed, evil. In Utah many years ago at daily Mass a priest blessed with his left hand. I asked this odd man why? He said what difference does it make, either right or left is equally good. He is right in one sense but because of the use in Revelation of the right hand as honorable and the practice for millennia, it is not kosher to use the left in ceremony/liturgy. The left is associated with the occult and satanic ritual and so is symbolically laden. On the other hand, if the left is all you can use, priest or lay, it’s fine.

 

[CelticWarlord]

Thanks very much for your response. Another little bit that I didn’t mention as it was not relevant to the original post is that I have always wanted to be left handed. My favorite baseball pitchers growing up, Dave McNally and Steve Carlton, were both lefties. The summer I was 14 (1971) I taught myself to throw left handed and got pretty good at it. A very minor dream come true but I didn’t stick with it.

 

[Viki63]

Back in the 50s I remember getting whacked with a ruler when I wrote with my left hand.
The times they are a-changin’. At least that’s one good change.